Hearthstone Budget Player’s Guide By: Pridestark

I’ve seen many people talk about how hearthstone is pay to win or toss around the idea that the strongest cards are only rare or legendary. This is NOTa thread being made to debate or argue points but a guide to playing hearthstone on a budget. Many things I will state are going to be largely opinion based on my personal experience with the game and with thoughts thrown in from a couple people I play regularly with. I will post their names at the bottom as well as my Twitter and Facebook pages where if you’d like to ask any questions or discuss anything further I will be happy to do so.

I would like to first start off by saying this game is still in the middle stages of beta, where open beta hasn’t even gone out yet and isn’t due so for about a month. I am personally a masters level player, which honestly doesn’t mean much from what I can see other than that I have made a couple solid decks and have common gaming-sense. I have spent maybe 6$ at the most to play arenas, haven’t bought any packs of cards, and currently don’t plan to have to. I am considered lucky when it comes to opening my packs but that being stated here I will give you good tips and advice on how to succeed without having to spend any money.

First, lets get the basics out of the way. These are things I would think to be obvious but the more people I speak and play with the more I find it needed to be said.

-Every class needs to be leveled to at least ten -Go through and beat all the AI’s on expert too -Do the daily quests

As someone that isn’t going to be spending money on the game you really need to look at what you have to work with and use them as efficiently as possible. (Ex. if you are lucky enough to have gotten one of the many “deck themed” legendaries I’d suggest using it.) But for those that have only the basic normal set let me point out some MVP cards in your collection that new players can easily overlook, then I will explain in brief why many of them are just amazing at any level of play.

Leaper Gnome– these are simply one of, if not, the best 1 drop in the game. You can trade for most early game minions with them since they have 2 attack and after they die their deathrattle still smacks your opponent in the face for 2.Argent Squire-Bc of Divine shield she can effectively halt many aggressive aggro decks. With the Mage, Rogue, or Druid hero they are particularly more potent because they can effectively attack a larger creature in conjunction with they hero ability and still hold board presence.Acidic Swamp Ooze-almost a staple in every deck. The swamp Ooz is there to shut down hero weapons and still have an impressive early game presence if against one of the many non-weapon using heroes.Murloc Tide Hunter, Razorfen hunter, Silver Hand Knight-These are all in the same category because all of them have “Battlecry: summon X creature” and therefor are amazing at helping to create board pressure and control. You have the first two already and the Silver Hand Knight is a common easily crafted card that I would suggest making if you do decent in your arenas.Shattered Sun Cleric-This is one of the best 3 drops in the game and in many decks even on a competitive level. This is essentially a 3/3 with an extra 1/1 as long as you have another creature in play. There are multiple ways to use this card to add board presence and it is just overall very strong.Chillwind Yeti-There is nothing special about this card except it is a strong 4 drop minion at 4/5 stats. A special note though is that if you do not buff it, against priests it can be very annoying for your opponent since their direct removal is just based off attack damage and they have none for 4attack minions.Stormwind Champion and Lord of the Arena-I’m only mentioning these cards for those that don’t have a lot of options, they are both pretty strong cards and are later in the game drops that I would suggest using over they others you get off the bat.

Those are just what I consider to be MVP cards that are either easily obtainable or already had when starting. With that said Silence and Taunt are your best friends when playing this game and should never be overlooked when creating a basic deck. One thing that I will not be doing at the moment is going over my thoughts on the basic sets for each hero. If you have any questions about them feel free to contact me and I will always be happy to help and/or discuss.

ARENA! The arena is always a better option than buying packs especially early on in your hearthstone gaming. Even IF you are to win 0 games and loose all three you will get a pack of cards and dust to use in crafting cards to further your collection. There are a couple good guides out there at the moment that will help make you a better arena player and I would suggest reading at least one of them. I have provided a link to one bellow and am currently writing one myself that I will post here as soon as I am finished.

Card suggestions to craft If you find yourself in the position that you have dust and would like to further your collection but do not know which cards to craft here are a couple cards that find themselves in multiple decks and you just cannot go wrong with.

-Ironbeak Owl and Spellbreaker (both commonly found in decks for silence) -Defender of Argus (amazing buff minion that can create board control for 4 mana) -Azure Drake (solid minion that not only add +1spell damage but is card draw)